I would put GREAT friends first. We can then become excellent dancers together by learning from each other regardless of our dance background. The more varied the backgrounds the more we can teach each other and if we're great friends we can do that without anyone getting their feelers hurt.. hows that....

If I could be greedy, I'd ask for two... First, the same vision, then friends. The skills and backgrounds could grow, but the vision and "connection" might be harder to achieve!

Friends. Definately. My close friends and I dance together a little bit outside of the class troup (Which is also made up of friends). When we go out on our own; experienced, wise dancers talk at length about the "vibe" between us on stage. Not only does our friendship make practice more fun, but it seems to translate on stage into that "something extra." On the topic of background, I think variety is the spice of life. One of our three loves cab. The other two are strongly against. But, being friends, we find a common ground. She also brings a martial arts background into the mix, so we get some really good stuff out of our differences.

Bottom line-if you dread practice, it will translate into performance.

Disclaimer: I'm sort of new to bellydancing so I have absolutely no experience to back up my preferences!

But first, great friends. People who you genuinely love to be around. I would imagine that working on a troupe puts you together with your other troupe members a LOT and great friends can weather the storm of a "business" better than strangers. On the other hand, really great friends can be harder to work with if they don't share your vision which leads me to section 2 below:

Secondly, Dancers who share the same vision. If all YOU want to do is be a local troupe that dances at hafla's and local fesitivals, community days, celebrations etc. and your troupemate wants to tour the country and dance in only super-professional venues, I'd say you have a bit of mismatch there!

I second the others- friends are great but vision helps too. I know my vision of dance is maybe a little off from my troupemates but all I ask is that they indulge me from time to time as I indulge them (I prefer altenrative music & alternative dance and they have a cab background). So our troupe ends up doing many different types of performances- which after all, is the spice of life!

Right now I'm in a couple of groups that fit into different catagories.

One is a group of friends with all different backgrounds, all different levels of experience, and all different visions. Some of us just like to hang out and perform from time to time, and some of us go to workshops and classes constantly and want to go pro. The best part about this group is having an excuse to hang out with my friends one night a week. The hard (and often humorous) part is that because of our very different backgrounds, we have to translate things from ATS to Suhaila to Caberet speak. lol "Is that an up or a down?" "Um... it's a left."

Another group I'm in is my teacher's student troupe, and since we're all in the same classes we don't have a language barrier and are all pretty much of the same skill level. It's a great group of women and I like all of them. Individually we might not have all that much in common, but bellydance brings us together. The best part about this group is that it inspires me to become a better dancer.

My brain is telling me that having the same vision should be most important, because it's where you're going and not where you've been that determines the future. If you're on a journey with these people you want to be headed in the same direction.

But I can also see how a bunch of different visions could make life more interesting. Maybe one member really loves Indian Fusion and another is all into West African dance. They'll both make your life and dance richer in ways that you may never have experienced if you had only joined up with people who had the exact same vision as yourself.

There are probably no right or wrong answers. It's about what you're hoping to get out of it.

I'd have to somewhat disagree with a number of respondents. Having been friend with a number of people who've started belly dance companies, what occurs with the most successful, the most innovative is that there's a vision, first. And that's usually one woman's vision, the troupe leader, and she gathers a group of people willing to sacrifice to achieve that vision.

Friendship builds from that shared sacrifice. In contrast, I know a ton of troupes that have started on the friendship tip, but as the stresses of actually making a troupe work grow, they have splintered, destroying the troupe. That's not to say it's impossible, as I know troupes that started as friends, and have stayed together for years and years. It is to say, though, that if you look at most dance troupes of all styles, they are built on things other than personal connections; the friendships come later.

A great example, FYI, is too look at the history of Fat Chance Belly Dance -- arguably the most successful Belly Dance Troupe in the world -- and how Carolena's vision has held it together, bonding the dancers together in ways that are, and are not, like friendship. A Band of Sisters, if you will. That's the framework I'd want for my troupe.

the same vision is gonna bet important, just to keep you from getting frustrated with each other. if you're very into it, and practice everyday, and another dancer only practices during class, you're bound to end up with friction, if you mean it or not.
i think it'd be fun to have a bunch of different backgrounds, esp. if everyone is interested in exploring each others, and you don't have anyone with a "my style is best, everything else is crap" attitude (i hate that! ahhhh!!!)
after that, if you have the same goals the level of dance will become appropriate, and you might make new friends. i know my efforts to try dance with the people i am close to haven't been met very enthusiastically. (Brigid only dances if she's drunk enough, and no one looks at her, even though she rocks mayas w/o even trying! ^_~)

I agree with great friends.

Communication and togetherness is a BIG deal when working in a group. We all know how women get when in close quarters.

My dance partner and I tried to run a big troupe, and it turned into crap and people backbiting and being horrible and mean to eachother.

Now its just her and I, and we need to reconnect and get back to the basics of why we were dancing together in the first place.

Being in a troupe is like being in a relationship. If there is no communication, or bad feelings, its going to show in your practice time as well as in your performances and such.

So yes. Friends first =) you can come together on your differences, and meld and mesh and learn new things! Think of the fun you would create! =)

I would have to say, dancers who share the same vision, followed by excellent dancers I'm friendly with. I love dancing with friends... BUT the temptation to hang out instead of dance can become way too strong, and I've had classes that degenerated into hang-out sessions from time to time due to this. But then, I would hope if we share a vision and are friendly, deeper friendships could be forged later. Ultimately, though for a troupe to last you need to have a shared vision. If you all want different things, it's going to pull the troupe in too many directions... you can get friction between people with different levels of commitment, disagreements over choices like style, choreography, direction...

That's a good point about not looking for all those things in one place, and I can definitely see it applying to the RPG world, too.

Being involved in a new troupe, having just left another one, and having been involved with one more in the past I would now have to say that Vision is the top of the list. A clear plan with room to adapt is a very good idea. Regular communication is very important. What you all agree on right now may change, so its good to talk about it often so everyone is on the same page.

Having said that its almost equally important to be able to work with the people you dance with, or all the vision in the world will be useless. It helps if you can all get along, you don't need to be best friends at the start but you'll probably end up that way.

Style of dance is not as important so long as the troupe can work together, what I think is more important is skill level -as in everyone should be fairly close in skill. If there is too big of a gap between members of the troupe, it gets frustrating for people on both ends of the spectrum. The advanced dancers can get bored, the beginners can feel like they can't keep up.

The best groups I have been involved in have a good balance of these three things, with slight differences in how it all came together.

Hmmm, though I think it is great to dance with people who I am friends with and or excellent dancers who I am friendly with, I think the biggest thing I'd worry about in a troupe is:
Dancers who share the same vision (want to go pro, want to have fun) as you.

A group that half wants to go pro and half just wants to have fun sometimes leads to minor conflict, if the pro going contingents don't feel challenged enough or the fun folk feel too pressured. Results could be the group splitting up.

Then again, if there is good communication, it could all work out.

see, i think it's one thing if your friends are already interested in joining a troupe....
i think if the vision/goals come after friends, then people are going to feel pressured to do something that they might not be as into just as a favor to you- or u as a favor to them. and a few times that's fine, but if your-or your troupmate's- goals are too different than your friends, it's going to add up and become a problem between you, even with the best intentions of being supportive- it adds up eventually.
i've been on the more-driven side with a lot of hobbies, so i just want to warn about that. if one side doesn't feel pressured, the other side feels either held back-not in the sabatoge(sp?) sense, but like you're going threw an amusement park with your dad who needs to stop and read every historical marker sign or something- or you feel bored/ like you're not satisfying your passion. and that's no one's fault, it's just a bad match. like a romantic partner.

I'm lucky that my tribe sisters in Black Rose Caravan fit all the points... but I know that it's a rare thing... and we truly cherish it...

Now, if I was to start a brand new troupe, with the experience that I have now, I would say that sharing the same vision is crucial... whether you are very close to the dancers or not, you need to have the same vision, especially if we are talking about pro vs. hobby (because of the different level of intensity/involvement)... other vision aspects are important to consider as well but can be negotiated...

Next, I would say that there needs to be a similar level of commitment. I know that it's not on the list and it kind of ties in with the vision thing but it's a different aspect of it... Some people may agree on the vision but then can they carry it through? If you want to go pro, are they all willing to put the time necessary for it? Even if it's just a hobby troupe (which is our case in Black Rose Caravan), you still need a certain level of commitment.

Friendships can be formed with time. We have discovered that what we need is a certain personality fit. We are all pretty much geeky and/or dorky in our own ways, share a passion about dance (duh!), and love a collaborative spirit. So, for our troupe, personality fit is what will give you a spot... not dance skills... not background... oh and you obviously need to share the vision but the girls that have joined the tribe have done so because they wanted the same vision as we did...

Same background, imho, is not needed, unless you want to start a dance troupe speedily. I personally enjoy the different backgrounds as someone else may know stuff that I don't and show it to me.. we love to mix and match so that's why we enjoy the different backgrounds. You can always teach someone what you know and vice versa...

Excellent dancers. Well, that skill can be learned with time. And in a troupe setting, the level of dancers will end up blending a bit more, especially if you pay attention to it... i.e., if a girl can't do a move for whatever reason, consider not putting it in or putting it in for a subset of the troupe who can do it. Well, this one basically comes down to respect.

Those are my personal thoughts on the subject... So vision, level of commitment, personality fit, and respect are the key ingredients for me. And that works for a D&D game as well. ;)

Im going to agree with Woodrow.

Shared vision is number one. If everyone does not feel the same about dance, want it to go in the same direction with the same sacrifices and same energy, its not going to be a DANCE group.
The friends - makes it a social group. Social groups have a whole other agenda to their gatherings.

You develope friendships with the common bond of dance. However, its nice to have friends who are not in dance. With them, you can talk about something beyond who is not getting what steps right and actually have a conversation about life instead.
Without a vision It shows up in the way a group is not together in their steps, in their energy, in their performance and their approach to the audience.
Not good - not bad .. just a view point.

Get more than one woman in a group - you will have different visions until One stands up to say "this is the target we are going to achieve" It unifies the thoughts.
Full cohesion is impossibe - but it is nice to dream!

I'll reveal my fellow geekdom... As a gamer, I understand exactly what your friend means about expecting too much from your gaming group! As a gamer and a bellydancer, I guess I'd vote for "shared vision." It's my feeling and experience that a group of people with a common vision can become great friends, because you have that goal together and can share in it. I also know from experience that people you work closely in a group with don't necessarily have to be your best friend - it's okay. Background and skill can both be made up for by common vision, since skills and common dance vocabulary can certainly be built by striving for that vision. But most of all I think it would be sad to have an awesome troupe of friends and have it broken apart by vastly different visions of where the troupe was headed.

I would say vision 1st, 2nd roughly same background and level, 3rd friends. I know some troupes and bands that formed on friendship more so than vision and level. They wound up have quite a bit of conflicts and problems that actually harmed their friendship.